BY: David Hein

 Evolution is the natural selection of traits on a species that work for their environment so they survive.  Species go through small changes over millions of years.

First Life  The first life on Earth were the heterotrophs.  They inhabited the sea in pools of organic goo. %20Rainforest/TropicalRainforesthtm_image030.jpg

First Life continued Life became more complex with prokayote cells and eventually the complex eukaryote cells. These organisms live on CO2 and expel Oxygen. So then life can expand to balance the levels of CO2 with the abundance of oxygen. This created aerobic organisms.

The first animal on land was the Ichthyostega. It crawled out of the water 360 million years ago to be the ancestor of all four limb invertebrates. It crawled out of the water to escape from its predators.

I am related to fish? Over Time the ichthyostega changed into all modern four limb invertebrates. You can see the similarities in bone structure and in embryonic development. ommons/thumb/0/08/Haeckel_drawings.jp g/350px-Haeckel_drawings.jpg

 Charles Darwin was the author of The Origin of Species in  The Origin of Species is still the cornerstone of evolution today.  His idea was that species change over time.  He got this idea from his expedition on the H.M.S Beagle, a ship charting and collecting data in South America and South Pacific.

 On Darwin’s trip he saw many thing but one important event was seeing the finches in the Galapagos.  He observed that the islands of the Galapagos all had different finches on each island.  They all had different beak sizes and shapes.  Later he thought up what if the finches all changed from one ancestor finch that came to the Galapagos.

The finches of Galapagos Islands all have different beak shapes. The finches with big short beaks live on an island where their food is hard shelled nuts and they need their beaks to break them open. The finches with longer narrower beaks are specialized for eating insects. images/rf_fig5.jpg

 Over time species might migrate to new areas.  These species in the new areas will adapt to live in this new area.  A group of birds might get lost in a storm and land on a new island. If they don’t adapt they will die.

Unnatural selection Proof that a species can change can be found in mans best friend. We breed dogs for traits they have. If they have longer legs good for running and a keen sense of smell we breed them for the trait and create a new breed. AAAAAAATE/ikwz4gFKh1w/s400/citydogs.jpg

The End Or is it ? evolution.jpg